Does This Latest Figure Mean Obamacare Is in Serious Trouble?

I seem to find myself in the minority on nearly everything. Perhaps it's because I'm a contrarian investor or maybe it's my love for the underdog (you sort of need to have strong skin if you're a Detroit Lions fan), but I find myself among the very, very few Americans who have had little trouble accessing my state's health exchange. In fact, I was able to sign up for health insurance without any technical difficulties.

For many Americans, that hasn't been the case. For the past 11 days since the launch of Healthcare.gov, the federally run health exchange, and the 14 state-run health exchanges (of which my home state is one), it's been story after story of servers crashing due to high volume and the information technology behind the exchanges being unable to cope with the complexity of some people's situations.

The Department of Health and Human Services has been pretty low-key about sign-ups so far, perhaps implying that they've been much lower than expected because of these glitches. Exactly how much lower you wonder? A recent study from The Associated Press and market research agency GfK Group sought to find out.

Obamacare's no good, very bad news The two agencies earlier this week released a study asking 1,227 adults from around the U.S. what their opinion was of the health exchanges since they opened and whether or not someone in their household had tried to sign up for health insurance via the exchanges since they opened.

Here were their responses.

Based on what you have seen or heard so far, would you say that the opening of these health insurance markets has gone:

Since the health insurance market in your state began, have you or has anyone in your household tried to sign up for health insurance coverage through this market?

Yes

No

Refused/No Answer

7%

91%

2%

Source: Associated Press-GfK Group.

Translation: Yuck!

The above figures are telling from a number of different perspectives. To begin with, inclusive of the refused-to-answer crowd, 73% of Americans have an unfavorable or non-positive view of the exchanges thus far. Perhaps it's a bit unfair to lump in the "Don't know enough to say" crowd, but clearly if they don't know enough, they aren't likely to tell their friends and family how well it worked and persuade them to sign up by word of mouth.

Another telling figure is the sheer number of people who admitted to trying to sign up for health insurance -- just 7%!

Understandably, we wouldn't expect this figure to be enormously high because, as of 2011 according to Gallup, 44.6% of Americans received health insurance through their employer. But this has the potential to become a serious problem if people don't start signing up for health coverage soon.

As Gallup's poll last year also demonstrated, employer-based insurance has been on a steady decline since 2008 when it totaled 49.2% of surveyed Americans. I would strongly anticipate that employer-based coverage is only going to drop further when we see 2013's figures due to the coming implementation of the employer mandate as outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which you probably know better as Obamacare. Under that mandate, companies with 50 or more full-time employees will be required to provide health insurance options for those workers or face stiff penalties. In response, hours and coverage have been cut by numerous high-profile employers.

One Wendy's (NASDAQ: WEN) franchisee, for instance, cut back hours for hundreds of employees in order to avoid having to provide health insurance coverage. Movie theater chain Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) pulled a similar maneuver, cutting thousands of workers' hours in order to reduce any chance of being liable for health care penalties. These may seem like callous acts, but they're needed in order for these companies to keep their prices and wages where they are now.

The end result should be an increasing number of Americans seeking insurance on the individual markets. This initial figure of just 7%, therefore, is a brutally low figure, especially considering that only 1-in-4 people are somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with the performance of the exchanges thus far.

How this could impact your investmentsI know I've been harping on this for a while, but insurers and hospitals are the two sectors that run the greatest risk of share price depreciation over the near term if these glitches continue.

I consider hospitals like Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) to be particularly at risk since they're counting on numerous uninsured people to enroll in order to reduce their burden going forward of uncollected revenue. To add, Tenet also operates hospitals in 10 states, of which nine have decided thus far not to expand their Medicaid program. This could mean a lesser reduction in doubtful provisions for Tenet compared to the rest of the hospital sector.

Insurers obviously have a lot of lofty expectations baked in as well. WellPoint (NYSE: ANTM) is one I've previously decried that could struggle, but it also appears to be a possible beneficiary relative to its peers since it operates in many of the state-run health exchanges, which are operating far-and-away better than the federally run exchanges thus far. We're still very early in the enrollment process, but current quarter estimates for insurers are likely to come down significantly if these glitches continue.

This is also a knock against the reliability of those who undertook the build-out of the federally run IT architecture. No one was expecting anything to be glitch-free by any means, but the unrealistic expectations of investors could certainly knock these software developers off their high horse. Take CGI Group (NYSE: GIB) as a great example. The company is the primary contractor behind the Healthcare.gov website. Although CGI Group's been fully paid for the job and isn't likely to see any material impact to its earnings in the upcoming quarter, future orders for the company could be called into question as other potential customers shy away following the Obamacare exchange debacle.

Stay calm and prosper Ultimately, though, investors just need to exercise patience with these investments as many are still poised to benefit over the long run. No major health overhaul has ever been implemented without a fair number of glitches arising, so we as investors need to do our best not to let our emotions get the best of us.

Still have Obamacare questions? We have the answers!Still in the dark about how Obamacare might affect you and your portfolio? The Motley Fool's special report, "Everything You Need to Know About Obamacare," takes a 360-degree look at how the law may impact your taxes, health insurance, and investments. Click here to grab your free copy today.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.

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Whether or not its popular, Obamacare mandates solve a long term instability in our economy.

Just the way Federally backed mortgages created an implied guarantee - the "Obligation to Treat the Acutely Ill" creates a mandate in medicine. Whether people like it or not, its better to FUND that MANDATE than ignore it. Bond investors must be happy about Obamacare in the long run.

Americans will never tolerate refusal of medical services to those who truly need it. That happens in India, Bagladesh, Somalia - but never in America. So if a 1/3 of us (and growing until October 1) have no insurance, then we've created another one of those economic sinkholes that will eventually cave in.

Those who wish to kill Obamacare don't care about long term stability. I don't know why, exactly, but I am happy that we now have at least one law that benefits our country in the long term.

What the democrats really wanted but couldn't get passed was a single payer health care system. What they ended up with is an overcomplicated pieced together kind of system that in the end is going to be impractical and people eventually will get disgusted with it. We needed health care reform but not what they are now calling Obamacare.

This figure does not surprise me. It should surprise those liberals who hyped 30-50 million suffering uninsured back when this stupid thing was being debated and voted on. Then when that didn't fly, they started saying those who were uninsured were the slackers and the heartless people. Now that this thing is 'up and running' where are those 50 million people who were supposedly suffering? I haven't read one story about the massive numbers of people who were desperate to get this trying to sign up. I have read about those who have tried, some who have experimented with it to see what it might be about haven't had much luck getting the system to respond correctly.

No, this thing is a disaster and if they're having this much trouble with it now, just wait until people start making claims and wanting treatments paid for. I wonder if we'll see the stories about those failures.

You have NO IDEA what you're talking about, which doesn't surprise me, coming from an Obama supporter.

Romneycare DOESN'T insure 97% of the state you LYING fool.

When Romneycare was inacted, 92% of the state was ALREADY insured, through their employer or through Massachusetts low income insurance provider Commonwealth Care.

Romneycare wasn't passed to be an entitlement! Romneycare told those who could afford it, to stop using their workers comp., in situations where they were self employed, to get an insurance policy.

Romneycare DIDN'T take over Massachusetts healthcare system. It didn't raise taxes, in order to pay for it. It didn't rely on young people to sign up and not use the insurance, so older people who paid less, would use more of the services.

Today, only 98% of the state of Massachusetts has healthcare, because 2% refuse to pay for a healthcare plan.

The "poor" get Commonwealth Care, NOT Romneycare!!

Why am I not surprised, that a left wing zealot, opened his mouth about something they know NOTHING about!?!?

Last month (09/18/2013), the White House quietly announced that Congress Members and their staff would be exempt from certain ObamaCare

provisions. Currently, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program picks up a large part of congressional staff’s premiums. That’s a no-no under Obama Care, and if forced to follow the same rules as everyone else, staff would lose a benefit that is often worth between $5,000 and $11,000.

With the October 1st exchange-enrollment date looming, the Office of Personnel Management simply decreed that the rules that will apply to all

other Americans who must enter the Obama Care exchanges won’t apply to those working for Congress: They’ll get to keep their employer-provided subsidies, which will cover 75 percent of their premiums, largely shielding Congress and their staff from the impact of higher premiums created by Obama Care.

Americans, regardless of their ideologies, smell a rat when they learn of this. A poll commissioned by the Independent Women’s Voice found that

92 percent of voters think it is unfair that the Congress should be exempt from paying for their insurance in the health exchanges like everyone else. It didn't matter whether a respondent thought the health care law should be implemented or fully repealed. Overwhelmingly voters want everyone

treated equally and don’t want the ruling class to cut themselves special deals.

This isn't the first time the Left has created a program and then wanted no part of it. Democrat politicians have long spoken movingly about their

commitment to public education as the great leveler in society and crushed programs that give more Americans the ability to opt out of their local,

government-run public school. Many, from the Obama's to the Clinton's to the Gores to the Kennedy's, then paid tens of thousands in private school tuition costs to spare their own children from attending those same public schools.

The company I work for is seriously considering not offering health insurance to the hourly employees. Many of them currently choose to go without because of the cost, however according to our HR if we offer it, and the employee does not take it they are not eligible for the subsidies. So in essence our company offering it hurts them. Makes no sense.

Obamacare will lead to a long term debt problem and to a total collapse of our economy , the problem is that it creates yet another entitlement system that shifts the cost burden from the individuals to the taxpayer through the subsidies , as the cost of healthcare increases so will the subsidies leaving the taxpayer on the hook for it !

MA had already a very low rate of uninsured when romneycare was passed, romeycare also didnt kick off most of the people from their existing plans and forced them to sign up for more expensive plans , romneycare didnt force people to buy coverage for infant dental care either even if they dont have kids , it didnt force single males and older females to pay for maternity coverage and other BS they dont even need

i had insurance with humana for years, i paid $196 a month now i got a letter saying i can keep my coverage for another year and pay $211 a month and then switch next year or i can switch now , the rate for the new plan is $354 a month !

So i do what most of my friends do- cancel the insurance and do without !

most people dont what no part of this law , the ones who are getting their cancellation notices now are not gonna sign up for obamacare because they dont want to support this law so they do without , the uninsured freeloaders are not gonna sign up either because they can still get ER care for free so why spend money , so that leaves only the sick !

If this jug eared fool were a Republican the media would be crowing about him dropping to 37% in an AP poll. IN an PMSDNC WJS pool 51% this his only out for himself. Yet the lapdog media just can't wrap there tiny little minds around it all. Maybe you need more than the indoctrination of a journalism school. Maybe some poli sci and Econ would help you understand. I guess that's why I get it and they don't

Interesting how a comment on the early days of enrollment in the exchanges should trigger a number of political rants which have nothing to do with the article.

Seems to me it is much easier to indulge in hyperbole than it is discuss the facts.

The fact that worries me is that the US spends 8% more of its GDP on health care compared to other developed nations, and gets no measurable benefit. What CEO would put up with 8% of his/her revenue going to complete waste.

Health Care has to be fixed. Moving individuals out of company schemes and onto exchanges seems like a step in the right direction, especially for companies that no longer have to deal with the labyrinth of health insurance.

We need to learn how to accept new concepts, if not we will always be in the dark. I see people complaining about not having enought money to go to the doctors but can afford things they will never improve their lives.

Know one said ACA was perfect but President Obama caved in to the Republicans last time and they made changes. We don't read or keep up with anything that will increase our knowledge.

In 2012, only 15.4% of Americans had no health insurance. If 7% of Americans have signed up for the health care exchange, this would indicate that almost half of the uninsured are now signed up. Seems pretty good to me.

And love your spin on the results. 30% of people say they don't know enough to say how the "opening of these health insurance markets has gone" (probably because they have insurance and have no reason to go into the exchanges) and 3% refused to answer, however, these people are considered in the non-positive category. Really? Here's an accurate representation of the data... Only 40% of people surveyed (4 out of every 10) indicated that the opening of the exchanges has not gone well.

I know it says I must be respectful, but that is extremely hard to do any time Obama or Obamacare comes up so please excuse me if I say something I shouldn't.

Why can't the republicans garner enough support among our elected officials to do something about Obama and this hideous mess he has made of our country? They must band together and stick together or nothing will ever be done to overcome the democrat/socialists that are driving this country straight to it's death. The most important thing that has got to be stopped RIGHT NOW is Obamacare as it will, in no time at all, bankrupt us and make us so weak that some second rate nation like China can walk in and take over without firing shot. You think the chinese and russians are our friends? Hah, wait 'til our wonderful government fails and see who jumps in to rule the country.

Get your heads out of your bottoms and force your congressmen and senators to do their jobs and if they don't run them off the hill next November, It is too bad wee have three more years of Obamanoxiuos because he needs to be run out of town too. (First).

I have not been able to create an account however it is unlikely that I would want to have insurance thru the site. I only pay $200 a month now for great insurance. One of my friends has the same insurance as me and he said he looked it up on the site and it will be $500 a month and much higher deductibles.

Forced insurance is an ignorant way to deal with outrageous medical costs. Obamacare is a concept fatally flawed from it's inception. It will become the most disobeyed federal law in history until it is repealed, or until we default under it's added debt.

It seems that the middle class and above on their previous self payments on medical insurance have become two to three times higher with Obama care. Now the eleven million illegal's that is considering to be citizens soon and the ones previously are going to get a lot more medical procedures in the U.S. due to this. It is no wonder that mental war procedures among those 535 persons running this country is happening today. The one percent seems to have control over them for profit. We need to go with the constitution that says we can sign paperwork and replace all 535 persons at any time.

I cant stand Obama! PERIOD, But if this man wants a real legacy after he leaves office. then he should repeal his own Obama care! Everyone told him it would fail. And it is. And what it will do to the employment and economy is unbearable! But of course his ego will get in the way and he will allow it to fail blaming it on the GOP?

Hey Sean-since you are the only person I have heard of that has been able to enroll in this fiasco of a so called health insurance, why don't you provide any details of your plan. ie-which plan are you on, what is the cost especially compared to your previous cost of insurance. Curious as to why your article which starts out about how fortunate you are to have gotten enrolled in this mysterious insurance that millions of americans have not been able to access over the past week. Tell us how did you do it? and the details please. As for me my current plan with a $5K deductible which costs $222/mo is being cancelled as of Jan 1st, a similar plan will cost me $511/mo. If you know anything about healthcare and insurance you should know obummers care-less act is not going to work. Only people on it will be the subsidized and the sick. Healthy people will not pay for it. It will be nonfunctional oh wait it already is...

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts called on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the face of Obamacare, to resign for “gross incompetence” on Friday.

“In the absence of a full repeal of Obamacare, which is my preference, we need new leadership from top to bottom. I am calling on the Secretary to resign,” Roberts said in a statement.

Eleven days after the beginning of Obamacare’s open enrollment phase, Roberts detailed Sebelius’ failings, from the problems with the online exchanges to the promotional flops meant to encourage enrollment.

Does this article mean that a Motley Fool writer is yet again using the same tired old tactic of asking a leading question to try to sway public opinion against the Affordable Care Act, while pretending to be all "just asking.." so as to appear objective and unbiased?

A lot of people are going to be disappointed because they expect free health care. This isn't free health care, half of the Congress would only approve for-profit health care, but it is still 40% cheaper for obvious reasons. The problem is people who can barely afford to eat really are hit hard. The purpose of the law is stated to help people get medical care, but the main beneficiaries will be people who already have medical care. By eliminating free loaders, their costs will also go down, plus the health insurance companies know that people can switch to the AHCA if their present insurance is too costly. However, nobody is going to get a free ride except the very poor, which will also lower everyone's cost because they won't be using the Emergency Room then skipping the bill. If people want free health care, we need to force Congress to pass single payer health care. It's very unlikely that will ever happen, Congress can't afford the pay cut.

As CoreandExplore says, it truly is amazing how many people don't understand this program. Of course, those are the people who are complaining, they either don't have the intelligence to understand it, don't bother to take time to find out, or they listen to Faux News and are making decisions based on lies.

When did the GOP become the copy and paste group? Try using your own augment sometime. Someone sends a BS chain email and you just copy and paste it as if it is the truth. Email was already proven as BS. Try google sometime. Please stop commenting, your scary away all the Independents to the left.

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner- Fiction!

This rumor originated from an April Fools Joke in 2009 featuring an alleged Associated Press story that said that Barack Obama received a grant from the "Fulbright Foundation" when he attended Occidental College in California.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in- Fiction!

Rumors about Obama's Social Security Number began circulating in 2010 alleging that the number belonged to a deceased man who immigrated to the U.S. from France and resided in Hawaii. That proved to be fiction. This sparked additional inquires as to why the President's Social Security Number began with 042, the three digit classification for Connecticut. According to the Social Security Administration, "The Area Number is assigned by the geographical region. Prior to 1972, cards were issued in local Social Security offices around the country and the Area Number represented the State in which the card was issued. This did not necessarily have to be the State where the applicant lived, since a person could apply for their card in any Social Security office."

Fruit from the poisonous tree. Try research like the email said then you can post the 4 or 5 truths.

I'm surprised that no one pointed out the fatal flaw in the second question, "Since the health insurance market in your state began, have you or has anyone in your household tried to sign up for health insurance coverage through this market?" Answer options were yes, no, or refused/no answer.

I went on the exchange site. I found so many choices for a policy (about 20, as I recall), ALL of which would save me at least 50% over my current policy for better coverage, it will take a little while to decide which one I want. So, I'd have to answer "no" to the answer, but I would hardly agree that the law is a failure, or that Obamacare is in trouble. I have about 5 1/2 months to decide, too. Then again, the sooner I do, the more I save, so I guess I'd better get busy. BTW, at my income level as a small business owner, I don't qualify for any subsidies or tax credits, so the savings are real, based on the policy premiums alone.

Haven't any of you heard of a "push poll?" That question alone tells all. That's all we're looking at.

“Community Rating” (one’s illness will not result in higher insurance rates)

are in place.

-My new business venture – getting people to fill out the Obamacare paperwork and wait until they are in the hospital or need health coverage for my company to file their Platinum level paperwork to get GUARANTEED insurance coverage.

Then have them drop coverage and pay the tax again until they need my company to file their paperwork again for Platinum coverage…again dropping the coverage until they need it again.

Only about 7% of insurance policies are expected to be sold through exchanges as most people have insurance through their employer. That 7% that the article is insinuating is too low is spot on where it should be.

Illness will not raise premiums. Age will raise premiums. If you allow insurance to lapse and suddenly need to go to the hospital, you will not be able to buy insurance to cover the cost. You can't be denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition but the coverage won't begin until after you are approved. The tax goes up each year. In 2016 the penalty is the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income. Most people will choose the insurance. At least they will be getting something of value.

The author is acting like this "law" is actually going to be around in six months. It won't. The Republicans don't need to repeal it. It's going to crash on its own. We knew this in 2010. Why are you guys so slow to figure out that this law will never work in this country?

Gowithit is obviously a Liberal Troll. Your rhetoric is just plain lies. You already sold us (Taxpayers) the used car with the bad transmission, bald tires, smoking engine and failing brakes. Stop trying to sell us the extended warranty coverage that a couple of bolts under the dash.

The ticket taker, ushers and concession workers at any movie theater used to be teenagers working for gas money. The people making your Big Mac, fries and shakes were also teenagers. The cashiers at grocery stores, department stores and pharmacies were also teenagers. Today these jobs are filled by college students and even college graduates. Why?

The answer to the question is -- no, that number does not mean at all that there is a problem. In fact, that number means that things are going pretty well. The key number going in is that 1200 some people were randomly chosen to be polled about the Affordable Care Act. Now, we know that about 85 percent of the population was covered by health care that they are carrying forward into the Affordable Care Era. These people are not signing up for ACA. They're not calling.

Now some 91% have not attempted to sign up for ACA. But 85 plus percent WOULDN'T. So it's really less than 11 percent that did not try to sign up. Only 15 percent would try to sign up, and 7 percent already did. In the first 11 days of the ACA.

In short, the sign up -- the biggest hitch so far in the system -- has been an overwhelming success.

Numbers don't lie, nobody likes Obamacare, it was a failure years before it even launched, and with the shutdown the ones who pushed to get this single sided agenda to add another tax burden on the citizens of this country can only sit back and watch is burn like the majority of the citizens on this nation have wanted it to since it was passed. The Liberals claim they are the government and should not be denied and demand more than they are either willing to give or can be provided, they are wrong and their true colors are being revealed, the veil is lifting and people are waking up to the lies of the Liberal Left. Their failures only continue to grow, and with enough time the damage they have caused can be fixed.

Hows their logic working? I don't know about you people, but It certainly makes no sense if they cut my hours that I am going to go running to buy health insurance that is going to take more of my money out of my pocket.

"One Wendy's (NASDAQ: WEN ) franchisee, for instance, cut back hours for hundreds of employees in order to avoid having to provide health insurance coverage. Movie theater chain Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC ) pulled a similar maneuver, cutting thousands of workers' hours in order to reduce any chance of being liable for health care penalties. These may seem like callous acts, but they're needed in order for these companies to keep their prices and wages where they are now".

"The end result should be an increasing number of Americans seeking insurance on the individual markets".

Really? If they cut my hours I am going to try to SAVE more money not spend it on something I might not need for years to come. Does that make more sense? I think it does.

As much as I would like to see predictions of the failure of Obamacare come true, I suspect that this prediction will not come true. As a healthcare business owner, I've been taught a lesson regarding the power of government many times. Once the government becomes fully committed to a strategy there is little that can stop them. I work in the Prospective Payment System (PPS), and I have often wondered how the government avoids massive litigation as they openly admit they have continuously created legislation that served the sole purpose of cost-cutting. In the PPS, the government has sought to reduce the costs of long term care (LTC). The government has passed a series of laws that have resulted in increasingly burdensome regulations for healthcare providers, and the government has openly admitted that these regulations have been designed to produce greater ability to deny services. When will people realize that the government is covertly legislating to deny access to benefits. The very benefits that voters work their entire lives to pay for through taxes, only to discover that their beloved government has legislated away access to these services. This is being accomplished by taking away the financial incentive to provide these services through burdensome regulations for healthcare providers.. It seems that voters are willing to ignore this strategy because there is a natural tendency to feel that access to healthcare is a right, and anyone who seeks payment for such care is somehow a bad guy. I have really grown weary of trying to explain to patients, that I have a right to earn a living (I am not saying to get rich, just earn a living commensurate with the commitment to be licensed to provide care), and that they are not "owed" access to the best healthcare services in the world. It seems that healthcare is one of the very few occupations in the world where one can be demonized by expecting to be paid for the work they do.

"Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen."

Now add this, "Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens." Think about it when you vote in November!

Only 51,000 signed up for it and most of those are ones that get it free according to a government agency overseeing Obamacare/NON-Affordable Care Act. My care would go up triple not including the deductible which makes it completely unaffordable and I do not get to keep my doctor or specialists. It plain out sucks!

One mystery of the government shutdown is why Republicans are so apoplectic about the Affordable Care Act, a piece of legislation that aims to make health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. One theory is that the Republican leadership is scared that Obamacare actually won't be as bad as they have been saying it will be — that, in fact, Americans (including Republican constituents) will quite like it.

If Americans like Obamacare, the theory goes, this will be a big blow to the Republicans' big sales pitch over the past 30 years, which is that more government is always bad. (This despite the popularity of Medicare, Social Security, and other programs that even many Republicans support.) And this, in turn, the theory goes, will be a big blow to the GOP.

Well, it seems at least one Republican is pleasantly surprised by the reality of Obamacare.

Sy Mukherjee of ThinkProgress caught up with Butch Matthews, a 61-year old former small business owner from Little Rock, Arkansas. Matthews, a diehard Republican, was skeptical of Obamacare. But the new law has already allowed him to buy insurance that is both much better, and much cheaper, than the astronomically expensive pre-Obamacare plan he was clinging to from Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Matthews' old Blue Cross plan cost $1,069 a month and had a $10,000 deductible.

The plan he just bought on the Arkansas state exchange has a $0 premium (after the government subsidy he gets because of his low income level) and only a $750 deductible. It's also a "Silver" plan, which has much better benefits than the vastly more expensive "Bronze" plan he ditched.

Mukherjee asked Matthews whether he had any advice for fellow Republicans now that he has learned that Obamacare actually isn't that bad.

Here's what he had to say:

“I would tell them to learn more about it before they start talking bad about it,” he noted. “Be more informed, get more information, take your time and study and not just go by just what you hear on one side or the other. Actually check the facts on it.”

“I still am a very strong Republican, but this… I’m so happy that this came along,” he continued. “Our home is paid for, vehicle’s paid for, this is our expense that we have. We have more expense on medical care than everything else put together, so this is going to be a great help for us.”

So maybe Republicans can learn to love Obamacare? Maybe sooner rather than later? So we can get our government open again?

Like the other comment said I have the feeling something will go very wrong with this health care law..People will keep having trouble with the website and other unanswered questions..But I think Obama is so arrogant he will do anything to have to repeal or change it..after all he dosen't even want to delay it for another year..which would be a very good thing to do so we can see how it works out..Instead he just wants to blame and make the Repulicans look bad for his faults.

Why isn’t anyone talking about “Romneycare”? During his presidential run, Mitt Romney couldn’t boast enough about how he authored and launched the single-payer, affordable health care program in his home state of Massachusetts. And the truth is…it IS a highly successful program, and it IS self-sustaining, and according to a recent poll 86% of the people enrolled in it ARE very happy with it.

So, why aren’t the Obamacare haters (aka Republicans) singing the praises of their “home boy’s” triumphant health care program? WHY? Because, even though Obamacare was created almost point for point from the Romneycare blueprint, it is still viewed as a “DEMOCRATIC” entity, and the GOP is more concerned about destroying everything Obama-related than it is helping to build a nationwide healthcare system that would help ALL Americans.

If anything sounded treasonous or “terroristic” in nature, it is the way the Republicans are deliberately subverting and sabotaging the President of the United States of America at every possible turn. We are on the brink of making history by putting comprehensive healthcare within the reach of every American citizen. Yet all the Republican party wants to do is DESTROY OBAMA AT ALL COST! And they don’t seem to care who must suffer in the process. (But then, why should THEY worry? They know they are guaranteed HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR LIFE—all at taxpayers’ expense!!!)

I have spent over 10 hours on the phone, online and in person, and have still not received any response to my application. I was not able to submit the application online because it would not work and the health plan I selected wanted payment for the first month premium before they would even consider my application. So I eventually mailed a paper application with a check. I am waiting to see what happens now.